GROUNDED Begins Tonight at Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Following sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival, the Gate Theatre London and the Studio Theatre, Washington, the critically acclaimed production of George Brant's Grounded comes to Birmingham Repertory Theatre from tonight, 4 September, through 6 September.

She's a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot. She's pregnant. Her career in the sky is over. Now, she sits in an air-conditioned trailer in Las Vegas flying remote-controlled drones over the Middle East. She struggles through surreal 12-hour shifts far from the battlefield, hunting terrorists by day and being a wife and mother by night.

Grounded is a gripping, compulsive new play that flies from the heights of lyricism to the shallows of workaday existence. This extraordinary play targets our assumptions about war, family, and what it is to be a woman

Director Christopher Haydon says of the play: "George Brant's Grounded is one of the finest plays I have ever directed. It's an extraordinary, caustic exploration of one of the most important issues of our time and it packs a multitude of ideas in to a single, brilliantly compelling character. Since opening in Edinburgh last year, it has been hugely exciting to see how thousands of people have connected with it and so I am thrilled at the opportunity to take it on tour and allow it to reach an even wider audience."

Lucy Ellinson plays the pilot. Her previous credits for the Gate include Trojan Women and Tenet (Gate Theatre and Greyscale). Other theatre credits include Money: The Game Show (Unlimited Theatre and Bush Theatre), Oh the Humanity! and other good intentions (Northern Stage and Soho Theatre) and A Thousand Shards of Glass (Jane Packman Co).

American playwright George Brant's first collaboration with the Gate was Grounded (2012 Smith Prize Winner, Fringe First Award). His other plays include Elephant's Graveyard (David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center, Austin Critics' Table Best New Play Award, and Keene Prize for Literature).

Director Christopher Haydon recently directed Twelve Angry Men at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. As Artistic Director of the Gate his work includes Purple Heart, The Trojan Women, The Prophet and Wittenberg.

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